Article Preview
TopIntroduction
The introduction of new communication technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic encourages organizations to use digital communication tools to maintain high employee performance levels (Bailey & Breslin, In Press; Raghuram et al., 2019). In alignment with the heightened importance of digital communication tools, researchers have started to pay increased attention to the relative use of communication technology by leaders (Hill et al., 2014; Raghuram et al., 2019). Indeed, research on leadership has recognized the importance of high-quality leader-member exchanges, suggesting that the quality of social exchanges between leaders and followers plays a central role in an individuals' performance at work (see for a review: Martin et al., 2016).
The core idea guiding research on leader-member exchange (LMX) is that leaders develop differential relationships with employees and that the relationship quality determines the level of exchanges between leader and followers (Dansereau et al., 1975; Dienesch & Liden, 1986). Organizational studies examining LMX showed significant positive effects on: job satisfaction (Erdogan & Enders, 2007), individual performance (Liden et al., 2006), preventing burnout (Thomas & Lankau, 2009), and organizational citizenship behavior (Dulebohn et al., 2012). LMX yields beneficial outcomes, at least in part, because of their motivational potential (Agarwal et al., 2012). Followers tend to perform better when they have a high-quality relationship with their leader because they feel more engaged. Employee engagement refers to “a persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment in employees” (Schaufeli et al., 2006, p. 702). Whereas previous research has already established a link between LMX and citizenship behavior (Dansereau et al., 1975; Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995), the present study takes a different approach. Specifically, our objective is to use the conservation of resources theory (Halbesleben et al., 2014; Hobfoll et al., 2018) to investigate the mediating role of employee engagement in the association between LMX and voice. Voice is defined as: “informal and discretionary communication by an employee of ideas, suggestions, concerns, information about problems, or opinions about work-related issues to persons who might be able to take appropriate action, with the intent to bring about improvement or change” (Morrison, 2014, p. 174). By looking at the LMX from a motivational perspective, we hope to add our understanding of the explanatory mechanisms of employee engagement between LMX and voice.
Although previous studies have been valuable in helping to establish a strong positive association between LMX and work outcomes, they are limited because they do not address the challenges introduced by the new digital age (Charlier et al., 2016; Hill et al., 2014; Humphrey et al., 2007). Indeed, work is becoming more complex and cognitively demanding through the continuous introduction of new technologies, such as the degree of digital communication (Barley et al., 2017; Charlier et al., 2016; Raghuram et al., 2019). The degree of digital communication refers to the relative use of digital versus face-to-face communication to interact with others (Hill et al., 2014). It might be possible that the implementation of new technologies introduces boundary conditions for the positive association between LMX and work outcomes (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Hill et al., 2014). We argue that because digital communication reduces social cues within an LMX, followers derive little intrinsic motivation from a high-quality LMX. Hence, one potential contribution of the current study is to extend previous research on the association between LMX and voice by examining the moderating role of the degree of digital communication as a potential resource loss.
Figure 1.
Proposed conceptual framework